Dragon Age: The Veilguard carries on the series’ legacy of queer inclusivity with an unorthodox apology when one character misgenders another.
In a scene that’s being circulated online, an NPC, Isabela, is telling a story in a tavern and accidentally misgenders a nobinary NPC, Taash. Upon recognising her mistake, Isabela promptly stands up, walks over to a clear area on the floor, and does five press-ups. When questioned about why she did that, she says she’s “pulling a Barve”.
Isabela explains: “Tradition in the Lords of Fortune, from one of our old members, Barve. ood guy, but like most of us his plans went sideways a lot. Bad blood among your crew’s not good for morale, but there’s not always time for big drawn out apologies. So, when one of us screws up and we know we’ve screwed up, we do a quick 10 to put it right.”
After this, the player character can then comment on the tradition or simply move on. If you press, Isabela explains there were previous nonbinary members of the Lords of Fortune and the reason for the press-ups rather than an apology is because “sometimes people say ‘oops, sorry,’ and hope that fixes it but they just want to get the whole thing over with.” On the other hand, “pulling a Barve” takes effort and shows the apology is genuinely meant.
She also explains that sometimes people go over-the-top with their apology and make the incident about them, rather than the person they’ve misgendered.
Some people online are unhappy with this moment, but since you control the buttons that you press, you don’t have to have an in-depth conversation if you don’t want to – you can just move past it.
In other news, many critics have highly praised the game, so it seems to have been worth the wait.